Shadow Among the Shadow World
by theawesomealto
Summary: Imagine a world where all the fairy tales are real where good and evil are constantly ere are warriors and warlocks, faye and magic. Imagine being able to see all of this world but never being able to experience it. Welcome to my life. I am a 17 year old half Shadow Hunter, half mundane human. I straddle both worlds while dealing with the general teen everyone deals with


Having divorced parents is nothing new to the mundane world. The Shadow world on the other hand if you as much as breath the same air as a divorcee, holy scandal batman! If anyone one in your family is divorced then suddenly it's the 1950s again and everyone views you as "broken" or "tainted". Maybe that's why my dad tried to shield me from the Shadow world, and I use the word tried very loosely. Since my siblings are all Shadow Hunters there was only so much dear old Dad could do to keep me strictly in the mundane world. Before I began recording my attics for you all, perhaps I should explain my family unit…just to avoid confusion.

Once there was a Shadow Hunter, his name was Dad. He, like many Shadow Hunters before him, had an arranged marriage. This marriage created my lovely older sister Nicole. But the marriage of her parents was not working out for any one and long story short, Dad and his Shadow Hunter wife got a divorce. She promptly married a different Shadow Hunter and Dad was then sent to New York City. That's where he met a mundane actress, Mom. They got married and had a little girl named Kate (this me). And they lived a mundane life…until Mom found out her little girl could see things that no mundane could. Kate had the Sight and Dad now had to tell Mom of his real Shadow Hunter past. It was too much for Mom I guess. Marriage over. Dad never blamed Mom for ending it though. They still talk and are friends now. Dad then married a widowed Shadow Hunter, Louise. Louise and her first husband had a little girl; a year younger than Kate named Brooke. After a few years of marriage Amy and Dad had Lily.

So my older sister Nicole and younger sisters Brooke and Lily are all Shadow Hunters. And I am a mundane that can see the Shadow World but can play no part in it. Oh well. It could be worse I guess. I could be stuck with my Shadow Hunter family all the time. Luckily I get to live with my mundane mother in New York. I go to school, have friends, have a job. Very mundane but I love it nonetheless. That is until I go and visit my dad and my family in Idris. There I am just a human. So I prefer to be with my mom, where I'm a gifted human.

Now that all this lovely exposition is out of the way, we can begin (last time I break the fourth wall, I promise).

It had been a long day so I stopped into Java Jones for a cup of coffee. I had just returned from a month at my dad's (gotta love summer vacation) and I was still trying to put myself back into my New York life. After a month of having a passive aggressive stepmother point out my every flaw, compare me to my far "superior" sisters, and staying in a community that treats me like a leper, I was ready for my normal relaxing coffee shop.

But of course today couldn't be relaxing. In my normal coffee haunt there was a poetry reading and Eric was at the mic being the poetic tortured soul he thought he was. Ignoring his words about loins and God knows what else I went to order my coffee. While I waited for my macchiato I saw Eric's friend and band mate Simon. Eric and Simon's band played at the club I worked at (I ran tech for the live music and my mother also works there is its not completely weird that I'm 17 and working in a bar) and seeing as we all seemed to go to the same four places in Brooklyn I had gotten to know them. We didn't go to school together and thank God for that. Eric is a sex crazed child that only views me as a pair of boobs and Simon…well he's too in love with his best friend Clary (who was sitting on a love seat with him) to notice anyone that wasn't her. Even in a friendship kind of way. Unless you were a member of his band or Clary you didn't exist. Which is why I find it so odd that Simon is waving me over. As I headed over, someone tapped Clary on the shoulder and she followed him outside, leaving an open mouthed Simon alone.

"What's up loser?" I teased. I liked Simon. He was nice and witty and unlike his band mates wasn't rude to the tech crew. And we got along really well. Probably because we are both sarcastic nerdy assholes (in the best way of course).

"Not much." Simon smiled as he came back to himself. At least he was functional without Clary. That's better than most couples our age. "I missed you at our gig last week."

"Really?" I was surprised he noticed, me not being a part of his important people list.

"Of course! It's not a good show unless Eric comes on to you and you step all over his ego."

"Maybe if he were less of a creep I wouldn't have to. But I'm not gonna hold my breath while I wait for that to happen."

"Fair enough." Simon laughed. "But seriously, where've you been?" Simon patted Clary's spot, inviting me to sit.

"I went to visit my dad."

"Was it really that bad?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're here listening to Eric's poetry. Clearly something traumatic happened." I shrugged. He had a point. But Eric's shitty poetry reminded me that I was home so I was okay with it.

"Well, I think I've come to my senses. I should get going." Mainly I wanted to leave before I had to third-wheel it with Simon and Clary.

"Don't leave and make me suffer through this alone!"

"Clary will be back soon. Besides, I have other fans that haven't seen me! I can't give you all of my love and attention, Lewis. That just won't be fair."

"I suppose not. Fine. Be gone, I'll suffer through this alone."

"Good. Who knows, maybe _you'll_ write a poem about you suffering! Give Eric a little competition in the tortured soul department."

"Maybe. Now get out of here, you're detracting me from my pain." He said impersonating Eric's poetic voice.

"I'll see you later. Oh, also tell Eric he sucks."

"Gladly." And with that I took my coffee and headed home.

Several hours later I got a text from Simon. At first I was surprised to see his name pop up on my phone but once I read the text I understood why he decided to contact someone outside his normal social circle. _Have you seen Clary?_ I replied that I hadn't seen her since the coffee shop. I thought about sending a "I'll let you know if I see her" text but decided that he would most likely see her before I did. But I wasn't going to let Simon's stalking of Clary get me down; I was back from hell, and on my way to my best friend Dominique's (Dom's) house.

Once I got on her street, I saw her sitting on the front steps waiting for me. While her house was down the street a ways, her short electric blue hair was impossible to miss.

"Sup, bitch!" Dom said as she jumped up and met me at her front gate. She let me in and gave me a hug before I could escape.

"Get off me you whore!" I laughed as she continued the bear hug me.

"Nice to see the month at Daddy's didn't get rid of your personal space issues." I stuck my tongue out at her as she let me go.

"Well, you haven't changed either!" I retorted. She still have her dyed hair, wore colorful eye shadow that always matched the colors of the dress she was wearing (today's knee length fish dress was paired with aqua eyeliner and sea foam green shadow). She wasn't wearing shoes, like always, and was smiling her contagious smile. We were quite the pair. Her always so joyful, colorful, and hyper. Me in my jeans and Converse, with my sarcasm and wit. And of course all of my insecurities and trust issues. Yup, we were quite the duo.

After hearing of Dom's summer (going to camp as a counselor, writing songs with her guitar, all the books she read, etc.) I told her briefly about my month away. While she doesn't know the whole truth about my dad and his side of the family, she knows what I think is the important stuff. Yes, my dad is a Shadow Hunter (Dom doesn't know, obviously) but he's more then that. In Idris my dad lives on and runs a manor but he runs is less like the normal pretentious Shadow Hunter manor and more like an American ranch. My dad has never liked the rigid way the Clave ran things. My whole family hates the uptight way of life most Shadow Hunters live. So, many generations before my dad and I were born, someone in the family to hell with tradition and made our family manor into a Wild West ranch. I guess my dad wasn't the first of our family to piss off the Clave. We do come from a long line of rebels.

So Dom knows I went to live with my dad for a month on his ranch. But instead of my sisters being better at riding and roping, they are better at stabbing and wrestling. Dom knows my step mom is a bitch who belittles me, and she knows my dad is oblivious to it happening. But she also knows that I love them all and can't exactly turn my back on them. Maybe that's why we are as close as we are; we both know what it's like to have a screwed up family ever, but not be able to leave it. As my account of the edited version of the past month, I mentioned that I ran into Eric, Simon, and Clary.

"Oh." She asked in her teasing way. "And how were to two love birds?" Dom also runs in the Simon-Clary-Eric crowd. While we all know each other, we tend to keep to our smaller group within the bigger one. Clary has a weird band of teenage boys while I have Dom, Sadie, and Amber (Sadie and Amber were my other close friends that I have yet to visit).

"Oh, you know. Clary off in her artsy world, Simon dropping hint after hint that-"

"She's his own personal form of heroin?"

"That line was creepy in Twilight and it's even creepier now."

"Cause you know its true." I smiled in spite of myself. Yes, it's kinda true. But Clary and Simon weren't nearly has awful as that fictional couple. "I mean don't get me wrong, that are cool but sometimes they are just too…clingy. You know?"

"I guess." Discussing other people's romantic lives was not something I was a fan of doing. Dom knew that, but she continued anyway…"You know its Simon who's into Clary. Clary hardly notices anything. So we just need to get Simon to move on. He's the one with the problem."

"We? What do you mean we have to do something? I don't want to get involved. Can't we just enjoy a drama free summer? At least what's left of it?" the only thing I hated more that talking about peoples love life was getting involved in it.

"This will be drama free! Besides, after the month you've had, you deserve to have a little fun."

"Fun would be me staying out of it. You can do what you like but I'm spending the rest of my summer doing nothing."

"You can't do nothing! I need you. I promised Eric that-"

"You and Eric talk regularly now?" I had thought that Dom found Eric as annoying as I did.

"Well yeah. I mean we're dating now." Apparently not.

"So?"

"So that makes Simon the only single one in the band. Hell, he's the only single guy in our group! And you are the only single girl. Well, you are Clary are but…"

"Forget it!"

"But I told Eric I'd convince you to-"

"Well, un-tell him 'cause I'm not going to date someone because it's convenient for the group." I liked being single. I know most girl my age think of being single as a prison sentence, as something they have to live through until the next guy shows up. Not me! I like my independence and freedom.

"I thought you liked him." Dom said meekly.

"As a friend sure. But-" luckily my phone ringing saved me from having to start what I'm sure was going to be a fight with my best friend. "Hold on." I got up and went to talk my call. "Hello?"

"Katharine? You're late for your appointment at the Institute." The cold and annoyed voice of Isabelle Lightwood was on the other line.

"I thought that since you're parents were out of town I didn't have to-"

"Well, you do have to. Believe me, none of us are thrilled about you coming here. And you better get here soon or I will have to notify the Clave and-"

"Alright, I' m on my way. God. I'll see you" she hung up "soon." I told Dom goodbye, told her I would text her, and headed to the Institute.


End file.
